As I was exploring the edge of a small stream in Northern Virginia yesterday, I suddenly noticed a snake slowly swimming upstream. Its head seemed quite a bit lighter than its patterned body and I initially was confused by it. When I examined the photos afterwards, it appears the snake, which I think is a Northern Water Snake (Nerodia sipedon), was in the process of shedding its skin.
Northern Water Snakes are non-poisonous, but I never have a desire to get close to any snake that is in the water. From what I have read, I know that these snakes will bite you repeatedly if you try to pick them and their saliva contains an anti-coagulant that will make the wound bleed a lot.
At the time that the snake appeared, I was shooting with a 180mm macro lens, so any zooming that I was able to do was with my feet. At a certain point in time, the snake became aware of my presence and began to swim away more quickly. I was happy to be able to capture a shot as it was departing that shows more of the beautiful pattern on its body and some wonderful patterns in the water too.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
I never was one to really call snakes pretty, but this is a cool picture of it moving in the water. Glad that you were able to take it without having to get too close. I prefer to see snakes from a distance as well! 🙂
Thanks. Many folks find snakes and spiders to be creepy, but I find them to be cool. I will sometimes get closer to a snake, but only when I am absolutely sure what it is and even then I will be using a pretty long lens. 🙂
Thankful for long lenses right. 🙂
Oh my now spiders are a different story, I don’t even like seeing them from a distance! Yes, I would be one of those people that find them creepy. LOL!
How cool to capture the shedding skin! These are wonderful images with the water rippling and the shadow of the snake in the second image is a nice bonus.
Fabulous shots, Mike. It is obviously pretty cool to capture an image of a snake mid-shed but I also like the fact that it makes the head paler than the body in your photo as it means the eye is drawn to the head first and then down the body so the eye is led around the whole image. Likewise, with the second shot, I love the diagonal composition and the fact my eye is again drawn to the head first. My kids and I love snakes. We had an encounter with a juvenile garter snake just the other day which was a nice start to the day.
Nice Mike!
Man, those are awesome shots Mike! I echo Ellen’s comments exactly, and I was greatly taken with the water pattern in the second shot when seen in the enlarged version!